Middle and Late Childhood

Physical and Cognitive
Development In Middle and Late

Childhood
Aspects of Physical Development
 Body Growth and Change:
 Growth during middle and late childhood slows down considerably.
 Day – by day changes are not obvious, but startling difference is

seen between 6 to 11 yrs
 Growth averages 2–3 inches per year
 Weight gain averages 5–7 lbs. each year
 Muscle mass and strength gradually increase; baby fat decreases
2
Brain
 Brain volume stabilizes
 Significant changes in structures and regions occur, especially in the

prefrontal cortex – which leads to advancement of attention, reasoning
and cognition.
 Increases in cortical thickness – reflects improvement in reading and

language abilities.
 Activation of some brain areas increase while others decrease – synaptic

pruning takes place – which helps in focusing fm larger aspects to finer
details of things.
 Activation also helps in cognitive control, controlling attention span,

reducing interfering thoughts.
3
Motor Development
 Motor skills become smoother and more coordinated
 Improvement of fine motor skills during middle and late

childhood due to increased myelination of the central nervous
system
 Boys outperform girls in large muscle activities and girls usually
outperform boys on fine motor skills
 Cursive letter becomes smaller and even, they can master

complex, intricate and rapid movements needed for play and crafts.
4
Exercise
 Elementary school children need to be active rather than sitting

idle as they have to use their energy in positive way.
 Physical activities and exercise is directly related to

development of cognitive abilities.
 It also caters to the increasing problem of obesity in children.
 It is said that 45 mins of moderate and 15 mins of vigorous

exercise is extremely good for overall development and growth
of children
5
Ways to get children exercise
 Offer more physical activity programs run by
volunteers and schools.
 Improve physical fitness activities in school.
 Parents and families should encourage and participate

in exercises and physical activities.
 Enroll children in community and school activities

which interests them.
6
Exercise
7
Rough and Tumble Play
Vigorous play involving
wrestling, hitting, chasing
often accompanied by
laughter and screaming.
It peaks at middle and late

childhood and fades as they
touch adolescence.
It is a universal kind of play

and was evolved from
monkeys.
8
Nutrition
 2400 calories required in middle and late childhood – mostly
because of constant exertion, growth requirements.
Nutritionist recommend varied diet including – grains, fruits,

veggies, complex carbs – like breads, cereals, potatoes etc.
Simple carbs should be minimum like sweets. Diet should
include milk and dairy products.
It has been noted that low fat diets have a negative effect on
height, weight , body mass and neurological development of
children.
9
10
11
12
Obesity and Body image
 Causes  Concern about body
image – that is how they
 Inactivity look becomes a concern
 Environment , especially for girls.
 Inherited Tendency
 They tend to take into
eating disorders.
©2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 13

Health, Illness, and Disease
 Middle and late childhood is usually a time of excellent health
 Accidents and Injuries

 Motor vehicle accidents are most common cause of severe injury
 Overweight Children
 30% of U.S. children are at risk of being overweight
 Cardiovascular Disease
 Uncommon in children but risk factors are present

Physical Changes and Health
 Health, Illness, and Disease
 Cancer
 Cancer is the 2nd leading cause of death in children 5–14 years old
 Most common child cancer is leukemia
 Children with cancer are surviving longer because of

advancements in cancer treatment

Physical Changes and Health
Health, Illness, and Disease

Children With Disabilities

 The Scope of Disabilities
 Learning Disabilities
 Difficulty in learning that involves understanding or using spoken
or written language, and the difficulty can appear in listening,
thinking, reading, writing, and spelling
 Boys are identified three times more frequently

than girls
 Dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia are most common

 Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

 Characterized by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity
 Number of children diagnosed has increased substantially
 Possible Causes
 Genetics
 Brain damage during prenatal or postnatal development
 Cigarette and alcohol exposure during prenatal development
 Low birth weight

 Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

 Serious, persistent problems that involve relationships, aggression,
depression, and fears associated with personal or school matters,
as well as other inappropriate socioemotional characteristics
 Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

 Autistic disorder to Asperger syndrome
 Appears to be a brain dysfunction

 Educational Issues:
 1975: all public schools required to serve disabled children
 Law requires disability students to receive:

 IEP (Individualized Education Plan): written statement that is
specifically tailored for the disabled student
 LRE (Least Restrictive Environment): a setting that is as similar as

possible to that of non-disabled children
 Inclusion: educating a child with special education needs in the

regular classroom

Cognitive Development
 Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage – 3rd stage
 Concrete Operational Stage: Ages 7 to 11
 Characterized by rationale and organized thinking.
 This stage is considered as a turning point in child’s cognitive

development as it marks the beginning of concrete and logical
though process.
 However, they can think logically but cannot solve problems

abstractly or hypothetically.

Advances
23
Seriation
 The ability to mentally arrange items along a
quantifiable dimension, such as height, weight. It is
basically putting items in order.

Conservation

Classification
 It is ability to group things – general and specific
classification. Big, small, colour wise, living , non –
living etc. They even use comparisons.

Decentering

Cognitive Changes
 Information Processing
 Memory: long-term memory increases with age during middle

and late childhood
 Knowledge and Expertise

 Experts have acquired extensive knowledge about a particular
content area
 Strategies
 Fuzzy Trace Theory

Cognitive Changes
 Thinking
 Critical Thinking: thinking reflectively and productively, and
evaluating evidence
 Mindfulness
 Creative Thinking: the ability to think in novel and unusual ways,

and to come up with unique solutions to problems
 Convergent thinking vs. Divergent thinking

Cognitive Changes
 Metacognition: cognition about cognition

 Metamemory: knowledge about memory
 Children have some knowledge of metamemory by 5–6 years of
age
 Scientific Thinking:
 Asking fundamental and identifying causal relations questions
about reality

Cognitive Changes
 Intelligence
 Ability to solve problems and to adapt and learn from experiences
 Binet Tests: designed to identify children with difficulty learning in

school
 Mental age (MA): an individual’s level of mental development
relative to others
 Intelligence quotient (IQ): a person’s mental age divided by
chronological age, multiplied by 100
 Stanford-Binet Tests: revised version of the Binet test

 Scores approximate a normal distribution—a bell-shaped curve
 Wechsler Scales: give scores on several composite indices

 Three versions for different age groups

Cognitive Changes
Intelligence

Intelligence
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)

Cognitive Changes
 Intelligence
 Types of Intelligence:
 Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

 Analytical intelligence: ability to analyze, judge, evaluate,
compare, and contrast
 Creative intelligence: ability to create, design, invent, originate,
and imagine
 Practical intelligence: ability to use, apply, implement, and put
ideas into practice

Cognitive Changes
 Intelligence
 Types of Intelligence (continued):
 Gardner’s Eight Frames of Mind:
 Verbal: ability to think in words and use language to express meaning
 Mathematical: ability to carry out mathematical operations
 Spatial: ability to think three-dimensionally
 Bodily-Kinesthetic: ability to manipulate objects and be physically adept
 Musical: sensitivity to pitch, melody, rhythm, and tone
 Interpersonal: ability to understand and interact effectively with others
 Intrapersonal: ability to understand oneself
 Naturalist: ability to observe patterns in nature and understand natural
and human-made systems

Cognitive Changes
 Intelligence
 Evaluating Multiple-Intelligence Approaches:
 Stimulated teachers to think more broadly about children’s

competencies
 Contributed to interest in assessing intelligence and classroom

learning
 Research has not yet supported the different types

Cognitive Changes
 Interpreting Differences in IQ Scores
 Influences of Genetics:
 Environmental Influences
 Group Differences
 Creating Culture-Fair

Differences in IQ Scores



Cognitive Changes
 Intelligence
 Using Intelligence Tests:
 Avoid stereotyping and expectations
 Know that IQ is not the sole indicator of competence
 Use caution in interpreting an overall IQ score

Cognitive Changes
 Extremes of Intelligence:
 Mental Retardation: a condition of limited mental ability in

which an individual has a low IQ (typically below 70) and has
difficulty adapting to everyday life
 Can be mild, moderate, or severe
 Organic retardation and Cultural-familial retardation

Cognitive Changes
 Extremes of Intelligence (continued):
 Giftedness: people who have 130 IQ or higher and/or superior

talent for something
 Three criteria:
 Precocity
 Marching to their own drummer
 A passion to master

Language Development
 Vocabulary, Grammar, and Metalinguistic Awareness
 During middle and late childhood, changes occur in the way

children’s mental vocabulary is organized
 Similar advances in grammar skills
 Metalinguistic Awareness: knowledge about language

 Improves significantly during elementary school years

 Reading:
 Two approaches to teaching reading:

 Whole-language approach vs. Phonics approach
 Writing
 Parents and teachers should encourage children’s early writing

but not be concerned with the formation of letters or spelling

 Bilingualism and Second-Language Learning
 Proficiency in learning a second language is a complex topic
 U.S. students behind other countries
 Bilingualism has a positive effect on children’s cognitive

development
 Bilingual Education
 Pros and cons – however, research supports bilingual education

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Physical and Cognitive

Development In Middle and Late

 Growth during middle and late childhood slows down considerably.

 Day – by day changes are not obvious, but startling difference is

 Growth averages 2–3 inches per year

 Weight gain averages 5–7 lbs. each year

 Muscle mass and strength gradually increase; baby fat decreases

 Significant changes in structures and regions occur, especially in the

 Increases in cortical thickness – reflects improvement in reading and

 Activation of some brain areas increase while others decrease – synaptic

 Activation also helps in cognitive control, controlling attention span,

 Motor skills become smoother and more coordinated

 Improvement of fine motor skills during middle and late

 Cursive letter becomes smaller and even, they can master

 Elementary school children need to be active rather than sitting

 Physical activities and exercise is directly related to

 It also caters to the increasing problem of obesity in children.

 It is said that 45 mins of moderate and 15 mins of vigorous

 Improve physical fitness activities in school.

 Parents and families should encourage and participate

 Enroll children in community and school activities

It peaks at middle and late

It is a universal kind of play

Nutritionist recommend varied diet including – grains, fruits,

©2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 13

 Middle and late childhood is usually a time of excellent health

 Accidents and Injuries

©2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 14

 Health, Illness, and Disease

 Most common child cancer is leukemia

 Children with cancer are surviving longer because of

©2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 15

©2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 16

©2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 17

 Boys are identified three times more frequently

 Dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia are most common

©2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 18

 Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

©2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 19

 Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

 Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

 Appears to be a brain dysfunction

©2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 20

 1975: all public schools required to serve disabled children

 Law requires disability students to receive:

 LRE (Least Restrictive Environment): a setting that is as similar as

 Inclusion: educating a child with special education needs in the

©2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 21

 Concrete Operational Stage: Ages 7 to 11

 Characterized by rationale and organized thinking.

 This stage is considered as a turning point in child’s cognitive

 However, they can think logically but cannot solve problems

©2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 22

©2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 24

©2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 25

©2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 26

©2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 27

 Memory: long-term memory increases with age during middle

 Knowledge and Expertise